The goals of the Genomics Core of the UAB Cooperative Specialized Center for Nutrient-Gene Interaction in Cancer (CNGI) are to provide state-of-the-art technologies for CNGI investigators in microarray-based gene expression profiling and high-throughput genotyping. This Core has been developed in the context of the Genomics Core Laboratory of the new Heflin Center for Human Genetics (http://www.heflingenetics.uab.edu). The Heflin Center Genomics Core has established three high-priority technological resources: (1) microarray analyses, (2) high-throughput sequencing, and (3) high-throughput genotyping, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The University has supported the development of this Genomics Core and to date, has committed $1.8M to this effort, with the lion's share of these resources dedicated to microarray-related hardware, software, computer support, and technical personnel. This facility currently supports capillary-based sequencing on the ABI Prism 3100 Genetic Analyzer as well as analysis of global patterns of gene expression using high-density oligonucleotide-based GeneChips from Affymetrix. In addition, the Genomics Core has acquired, installed and is operating all the equipment necessary to produce spotted microarrays, e.g. a GeneMachines OminGrid arrayer, an Axon GenePix 4000B Array Scanner, a Beckman Biomek 2000 Laboratory Automation Workstation and a Multimek 96 Liquid handler. The Genomics Core is working closely with the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core (Core D; organized as part of the CNGI application) as this group develops the UAB Gene Expression Database, which will serve as repository for all gene expression data generated at UAB. For the purposes of this application, the UAB CNGI Genomics Core has two primary objectives: (1) to perform gene expression analyses for UAB CNGI investigators using high-density oligonucleotide-based GeneChips from Affymetrix as well as spotted long-oligonucleotide arrays (Projects 1, 2 & 4). and (2) to identify candidate genes within the estrogen biosynthetic/metabolic pathway that harbor polymorphisms, specifically single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), for population-based association studies involving inter-individual variation in age of menarche onset (Project 3). The UAB CNGI Genomics Core will operate within the Genomics Core Laboratory of the new Heflin Center for Human Genetics and will have designated personnel assigned to CNGI project support.